Dawn Collinson finds out the latest way to stay standing tall at Ladies Day

A NEW dress, shoes, hair and nails are top of most Ladies Day checklists, but now there’s an added option for women wanting to avoid the heels-in-hand walk of shame after the last race ... Botox in the feet.

Karidis Medispa is offering women the ultimate in races preparation: injections which all-but eliminate sweating in feet and so cut down the chances of agonising rubbing shoes.

It isn’t exactly pain-free, they admit, but that isn’t putting off clients who are determined to stand in skyscraper heels for hours on end in the name of fashion.

“I think the effort women are prepared to put in to looking good has definitely increased in the past couple of years,” says senior nurse practitioner Helen Chapman. “To a lot of women having Botox is a little bit like having their nails and hair done, it’s just another treatment that makes them look and feel better and it’s absolutely part of their beauty regime.

“It’s all about maintenance with these things and I think women are prepared to withstand a little bit of short-term pain to get the results at the end of it. For some women, if they see it as being potentially a real problem, then they don’t mind enduring about 20 minutes of discomfort to tackle that.

“It really is no pain, no gain, and women now are pretty tough and willing to go through more in the cause of a little vanity.”

Helen says the Karidis Medispa, based in Liverpool’s Beauty Bazaar at Harvey Nichols, usually uses Botox to combat facial fine lines and wrinkles.

“But it can also be used for excessive sweating too, what we call hyperhidrosis,” she adds.

“Hyperhidrosis happens most often in the palms of the hands, in the armpits and in the feet so these are the three areas away from the face that we treat with Botox.

“At the races obviously women are on their feet for quite a few hours, probably much more than in the course of a normal day, and most will be wearing quite high heels.

“If you’re standing for so long then your feet are likely sweat and then there’s more chance that shoes start to rub and become really uncomfortable.”

Helen says the Botox in feet treatment is one which dancers regularly use and now more women are choosing it for personal rather than professional reasons.

It doesn’t completely stop feet from sweating, she says, but it does get rid of around 80 to 90 per cent.

“The Botox works by basically shutting down the sweat glands in the feet,” she explains. “We inject small amounts of Botox fluids into the area and because it’s a liquid it diffuses.

“There are multiple injections involved and usually in the face it’s around 15, but in the feet we do around 20 injections in each foot.

“The feet are a very sensitive area because the nerves are closer to the skin surface so it can be a painful place to inject into. But we can use a local anaesthetic cream which takes the edge off it by numbing the surface area.

“The treatment takes no longer than an hour, though, and once it’s completed the pain is gone. You might get a little bit of bleeding or localised swelling for a couple of hours afterwards, but that’s all. And it lasts up to a year, which is much longer than Botox in the face which usually lasts between three and six months.”

Helen says that feet Botox is one of many treatments which women now have done as a package.

“Rather than just one area, they will often come to us to get wrinkle treatments and cellulite treatments and they’ll book in for an extra one if they’ve heard about it, maybe for a special occasion like a wedding or the races.

“I think people are increasingly open to new cosmetic options and ideas especially if it makes them look good.

“Heels are such a fashion statement but there’s nothing worse than when your feet hurt, so anything that can help with that it worth considering.

“That’s why so many women love Party Feet in their shoes, and this is just taking it to the next level.”